Institutional organizations, such as public safety organizations, typically use specialized voice communication systems to facilitate group discussions. Voice communication systems are typically embodied as narrowband radio systems which support low-bit-rate digital transmission of voice streams. An example of such a voice communication system is a Project 25-compatible two-way Push-To-Talk voice communication system which includes wireless and wired voice communication devices. The voice communication devices may be, for example, portable narrowband two-way radios, mobile radios, dispatch consoles, or other similar voice communication entities which communicate with one another via wired and/or wireless networks. Institutional organizations choose these types of voice communications systems because they provide high end-to-end voice quality, use advanced cryptography, enable centralized logging of calls, and are associated with low delay and high reliability. In addition, institutional users are familiar and comfortable with the user interface of these voice communication devices.
In addition to voice communications, institutional users may also share multimedia content, for example video media. The bandwidth requirements of multimedia content are generally greater than that provided by a voice communication system. Therefore, to transmit multimedia content, the institutional users may use data communication systems which are typically embodied as broadband radio systems. Broadband radio systems typically support high-bit-rate digital transmission of data streams, including real-time video. An example of such a data communication system is a wireless data network which operates in accordance with the Long Term Evolution (LTE) signaling standard and which includes wireless and wired data communication devices. The data communication devices may be, for example, smart phones, laptops, desktop computers, servers, dispatch consoles, or other similar data communication entities capable of participating in multimedia sessions and which communicate with one another via wired and/or wireless networks. Because data communication systems do not currently provide the same set of services to support voice communications that are available over dedicated voice communication systems, these institutional users typically use both the data communication system and the voice communication system at the same time. For example, these users are likely to discuss the content of a multimedia session, delivered over the data communication system to data. communication devices, using voice communication devices operating on the voice communication system.
Users of a voice communication system are typically grouped into logical talk groups to facilitate group discussion. Users operating voice communication devices can typically be joined to only one talk group at a time. As such, users typically select a talk group which will convey all voice communications relevant to their job function. This talk group is hereafter referred to as the users' primary talk group. Primary talk group membership, for example, may include all users typically operating in specific geographical area, such as a district or precinct. As such, the membership of primary talk groups is typically relatively large in size. The number of users concurrently viewing or sharing the same multimedia content by way of a multimedia session, on the other hand, is relatively small. When users whose voice communication devices are affiliated to a given primary talk group attempt to verbally discuss certain multimedia on the voice communication system, the resulting conversations may be distracting to those users whose voice communication devices are also affiliated to the same primary talk group, but who are not currently participating in the multimedia session.
Although institutional users may change the current talk group affiliation of their voice communication devices away from their primary talk group assignment, perhaps to a talk group whose membership includes the voice communication devices of only those users currently participating in a given multimedia session, a voice communication device associated with this secondary talk group selection may not continue to receive voice communications directed to the user's primary talk group. This may disrupt mission critical communications, such as resource dispatching. Furthermore, if the affiliation status of an institutional user's voice communication device is automatically changed to that of a secondary talk group, the user will unknowingly miss voice communications directed to their primary talk group. For at least these reasons, institutional users are hesitant to change their current talk group affiliation away from their primary talk group and prefer to reserve the use of secondary talk groups for highly specific scenarios.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for transmitting voice communications related to a multimedia session, without affecting a user's affiliation with a primary talk group.
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The apparatus and method components have been represented where appropriate by conventional symbols in the drawings, showing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having the benefit of the description herein.